The present invention relates to an improved damper assembly for keyboard musical instruments, such as a piano in which free vibration of each string is usually restrained through pressure contact with an associated damper head and, only when an associated key is depressed, the damper head is brought out of the pressure contact with the string in order to allow free vibration of the string for generation of a corresponding musical tone.
In the construction of the conventional damper assembly, swinging movement of a key caused by its depression is transmitted to an associated damper wire holding a damper head by means of a swingable damper lever. Swinging movement of the damper lever tends to cause deviation of the damper wire from the true verticality in movement and dancing of the damper wire during the movement. Such deviation from the true verticality in movement often leads to time variations and uneven contact of the entire damper head with the vibrating string, thereby seriously degrading the damping and acoustic effects. Dancing during the movement promotes frictional abrasion on the damper wire and a guide rail for the damper wire, which finally causes uncontrolled contact of the damper head with the vibrating string, thereby degrading the damping and acoustic effects also. Use of a damper wire that is circular in cross section causes easy axial twisting of the damper wire when the damper head held by the damper wire contacts the string vibrating in a conical ambit and this results in biased contact of the damper head with the string, thereby further lowering the damping and acoustic effects. Balance weights are embedded in one body in the damper lever in order to provide a proper weight to the damper assembly. This embedded construction of the balance weights disables easy replacement of the balance weight for adjustment of touch on the key. Further, forced embedding of the balance weight often causes accidental breakage of the damper lever due to development of cracks.